


Small Sacrifices

by JennInWonderland



Series: The Valkyrie and the Leprechaun [2]
Category: American Gods (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mad Sweeney Needs a Hug (American Gods), Mad Sweeney backstory, Oral Sex, Porn With Plot, orignal valkyrie character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 00:33:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennInWonderland/pseuds/JennInWonderland
Summary: She heard his deathwish from hundreds of miles away and she rides across the country to save him from himself.  At a time when all his worshippers are gone and all his sacrifices have dried up, a valkyrie from his past has something for him.  The two share a heated night before he heads off to Cairo and his ultimate fate.





	Small Sacrifices

**Author's Note:**

> A note from the author:  
This is connected to another work I did Tears for the Sun, using an original character I imagined. Her name is Rota and since I have now written two works with her but haven't really gave much of a description of her it's worth it to mention I have a mental picture of a character very much like Lagertha from Vikings although Rota is not actually THAT character, that was just the visual I had in mind. You don't have to read the other work to understand and enjoy this one but the two stories are definately in the same universe so it may be worth it to you.  
While this story is slightly AU from the straight up American Gods series, I am still following the time line. This story takes place after New Orleans. Yes, Sweeney has a lot of awesome chemistry with Dead Wife, but that doesn't mean she's the only woman he's ever cared about or will ever care about. I see him going on a bender after Dead Wife and him had their big argument and shortly after that I picture this encounter happening literally right before he heads to Cairo. He get's feeling like shit again by the time he gets across the country and he ends up laying under a bridge before Shadow shows up and they go to the funeral home.
> 
> Part 2 of The Valkyrie and the Leprechaun series though it actually happened before the 1st part of the series takes place.

It's been years since she's laid eyes on him, at least 3 of them. The man in front of her looks more like a homeless person then a god or a king at the moment...perhaps he does look a little like a leprechaun, with his ginger hair, freckles, and the whiskey bottle in his hand when she finds him passed out under a tree in what looks to be a small park in the middle of almost nowhere. Even as rough as he looks now, he's still one of the most attractive men she's ever met. She isn't sure what people see when then meet him now, but when she looks at him she still sees him lit from within as if the sun is always at his back. 

She reaches down and roughly shoves his shoulder once, twice, and on the third shove he opens his bourbon brown eyes sharply and glares up at her, clearly trying to get some kind of baring on what is going on around him. It's day time now, she can only assume it was nighttime when he came to rest under the poor excuse for an oak tree...and it's after noon now so the sun is undoubtedly blinding to his hazy eyes. Sweeney has always been known to come up swinging so she's prepared for it when he does. She easily dodges his punch and swats his hand away. When he was at his best they were fairly close to equal strength, he may have even had a little bit of the upper hand. Now that he was without his coin though, his strength and power were quickly dwindling down to something very close to human, while she was still a demi-god. 

"Dead Wife, that you," he asks with what sounds like hope in his voice. He's squinting up at her and after a beat or two without her responding she can hear his nerves come into his voice, along with the anger, "Oh for fucks sake, if you want to rob me I've got no money...so fuck off." She watches as he starts to lose consciousness again. He's not drunk anymore, she can tell now that he's come to enough to speak with her, he's just fading back into his own mind as his madness unfortunately tended to do. 

"I don't want your money Suibhne," the blonde haired woman says, softer then she has spoken to anyone in decades...centuries. The red head's attention snaps back to the woman above him and the anger is back immediately. She should have expected it considering who she worked for, or at least who she USED to work for. He was pulling his wits together as best he could now that he recognizes her, she can tell. Sweeney stands to his full height, granted, leaning against the tree for support.

"Tha fuck ya doin here buzzard," Sweeney growls at her, looking like if he had a blade in his hand he would definately have tried to use it on her, "Ya couldn't wait until it was yours to take so ya comin to get it for yer self?" Rota took a step back and thought about who she was dealing with. She knew that sometimes Sweeney lost time and got lost in memories so she was wondering just what version of herself he was talking to in his mind. They had had many different chapters in their relationship over the years and depending on what chapter he was thinking about, there could be a lot of alternatives on how this encounter was about to go. The valkyrie took a deep breath and stepped forward calmly, laying her hands on Sweeney's shoulders and leaning forward so they were eye to eye, foreheads resting against each other.

"Sweeney, what have you done to yourself," she felt his body go whip tight and try to snatch away but she didn't let him, his strength no match for hers anymore, "I could feel your deathwish last night, leprechaun, and I figured I better hurry up and get here before someone actually answered your request." She had just driven over 300 miles between where she'd been and where the two of them now were and she was exhausted, mentally and physically. She had worried that the man in front of her would have found what he was looking for before she got to him. Luckily, without his coin he didn't have the tolerance for alcohol he was used to and it had taken effect before he found anyone worth fighting. 

"Fuck off valkyrie," Sweeney shot at her with all the strength he had left in him, "my soul ain't yers to take, no matter what you say. Fucks sake, it's all I've left at this point. Can I keep that at least?" He sounded more desperate then she'd ever heard him and it broke her heart. She had told him millenia ago that she was going to reap his soul when the time came but he was Lugh, god of the sun back then, and she was one of many valkyrie in Odin's army, doing her job. 

The two of them had met each other in battle and the battle had been vicious. He had had her pined to the ground, his spear through her wing when her sisters dove into him from the sky and one of them butted the handle of her heavy iron sword into his brow, knocking him to the ground. As her sisters helped her into the sky with her wounded wing Rota had hissed back at the god bleeding behind her, "You won't live forever, I can sense THAT. Your soul will be mine. When the time comes I'll be the one to take it god king. You'll pay for what you've done to me." 

She knew that that was the person he thought he was fighting with now, it just wasn't REALLY a fight. So much had come to pass between the two of them since that day in battle she didn't even know where to start with the man in front of her.

"Mads...come back to me," the blond haired woman whispered against his lips, even as he tried to pull away from her, "we can fix this but I need you to come back to me." She could count on one hand the number of times she had cried in her life, and it doesn't even take all of her fingers...she feels close to tears now though. It's rare that Sweeney doesn't recognize her for who she really is...his ally, at the very least, and even rarer that he doesn't snap back to her once she has spoken to him as a friend. The leprechaun pushes at her again and she steps back, she'll give him this peace at least. If he can't remember her, he can at least feel like he has some control over this situation instead of making him feel like he is being attacked by a predator from his past. 

"I'm going to that motel right over there," she says, pointing across the street to a run down Holiday Inn that had somehow made it's way out to the middle of Bumfuckt, where they currently were, "If you remember that I don't want to kill you, come find me. I know you aren't as strong as you used to be but I know you can still sense my intentions if you just let yourself. I'll let the person at the desk know that if a big ass ginger with an attitude problem comes looking for me to give you my room number." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and tossed it down in front of him. "And if you decide that you don't want shit to do with me and you just need to get out of here get a taxi or give that to someone for a ride. Just please take care of yourself Sweeney, if you won't let anyone else do it." The shield maiden turned and walked away from the leprechaun before he could make any more snide comments, hoping that her plan would work. 

Rota walked across the street and into the lobby of the motel without looking back at the ginger under the tree, though she could feel his eyes burning into her back, or maybe her ass, while she moved. 

She pays extra for the one room with a whirlpool tub in hopes that he would show up. He shows up in the middle of the night with his wits a little more about him and she kisses him gently and undresses him. He is very docile about it all. She made him shower off and then got him into the tub that was raggedy but still pretty decent, especially since it was big enough to fit his long body in it. She washes his hair and his body with him half in and out of it, sometimes focused on what she was doing, other times zoned out completely. After they finish she towels him off, with his half assed help and he wraps the towel around his waist. They move to the bedroom that was attached to the bath, nothing special by any means but it's clean and it will do. It's definately not the worst place either one of them have spent the night. She kisses his scars, one at a time, and makes him tell her where he got them all. She already knows where the majority of them came from but she's doing it to keep him talking, to help him put his memories together, and also just because she knows that he loves to tell stories but no one ever gives him a chance to anymore. When she gets to the deep one on his brow her sister gave him she lingers a little longer then the others.

"I'm sure ya remember what that one come from," he said, the playful edge that she loved finally coming back into his voice. He looked more clear eyed then he had all afternoon and he seemed more clear headed. "Damn hateful buzzards ya are, the lot of ya," his hands come up to cup her face as he leans his forehead forward to lean against hers, their foreheads touching and lips less than an inch from each other, "I'm sorry Rota. I didn't mean to fuckin...just...I didn't mean for ya to have to come here and...save me." His eyes begin to glaze over for a moment, like she's about to lose him again but he shakes his head, shakes the madness off for the time being and focuses back in on the beautiful, strong woman in front of him. "I'm okay, love. I'm Mad fuckin Sweeney, I'll be fine." The way he said it, she knew he was talking more to himself then he was to her, trying to convince himself that he'd come out of this mess the same as he had all the others before...a little weaker, more broken each time, but still always a survivor. 

Rota trails her hands up his sides, noticing for the first time ever that Sweeney has lost weight for probably the first time in his life. No matter what he subjected himself to, his body stayed his temple until very recently. She figures he probably should be eating more now, but there's no need mentioning that right now...not while she is just trying to make him forget the mess he's gotten himself into and trying to help him remember the good times they've had together. "Sit down on the bed for me Sweeney," she whispers against his lips and like he always does when it's the two of them alone together this way, he obeys. Rota follows his every move as he backs up toward the bed and sits down, her lips moving from his mouth to his cheek, to his neck and down the tendon there to his shoulder where she sinks her teeth in JUST hard enough to not draw blood, but...this almost human version of Sweeney will definately have a hell of a bruise there in the morning. He hisses through his clenched teeth and she knows that the electric shock that shot through his body and pulled all his muscles taut under her hands and mouth wasn't all pain, but at least 80% pleasure.

"Don't tease, ya cunt," he growls, grabbing her around the backs of her thighs and pulling her up and into his lap, straddling him with a jean clothed thigh on either side. He was only wearing the towel he'd put around his waist after getting out of the bathtub but Rota was fully dressed, down to her boots. Once she realized this, she couldn't get it out of her mind. She felt bad since the power inbalance was already unfairly in her favor but she suddenly thought he was at her mercy and all she wanted to do with the power was make him feel worshipped. Granted, worship from one demi-god to another wasn't nearly the same thing as having a mortal put sacrifices at your feet...but it was certainly better then nothing at all. 

She shifted her weight back and forth in his lap a few times, feeling him thicken up beneath her even through the thick layers of hotel towel and the jean material of her pants. She groaned against his neck as she ran her lips along his pulse point, keeping her arms wrapped tight around his back to keep him in place. She could feel him starting to get jumpy under her, shying away from the undivided attention. She knew he was uncomfortable with being the docile partner that goes along for the ride but she also knew that once he relaxed and allowed himself to accept the offering she was giving him, he would enjoy himself immensely.

Usually sex with Mad Sweeney was like being hit with a force of nature. He was a wild man in everything he did, before and after he was cursed with his madness. He loved the power it gave him to just completely overwhelm his partner (human or other) with the pleasure he could give to her and take from her. After sex with him, Rota had always found herself in a bit of a stupor, completely drained of all her energy, unable to think of doing much other then curling up against his side and taking a month long nap and she was a VALKYRIE...she could only imagine what the human women he fucked felt when he was done with them...probably like they had just been with some kind of pagan fertility god or something, which to be fair wasn't EXTREMELY far off base. She was fairly sure Sweeney pulled some kind of power from the sexual act, but when she had asked him about it centuries back he wouldn't give her a straight answer. She didn't know for sure if he even knew the answer, himself.  
This time was different, he wasn't pushing for the lead. She knew he was weary to the bone and she was thankful that he was handing the reins over without her having to try to TAKE them. She knew they both wanted the same thing, to take some pleasure from the other, she just wanted him to let her do the majority of the work for once. 

Rota sat back, putting her full weight back on his stiff cock. She couldn't help the slow smile that curled the corner of her lips when he grasped her tighter around the hips and ground his pelvis up into hers to get a bit more pressure against his hardness, biting down on his own bottom lip in the process as a pained noise resonated from deep in his chest. She reached back and pulled his hands off of her haunches and slid from his lap. The look of disappointment on his face was almost painful, so Rota took pity on him and slid down onto her knees in front of him. She leaned forward and pressed her cheek against his hardness beneath the towel, rubbing her cheek against it much like a cat marking it's favorite person. She turned her head to mouth at him through the towel, her eyes drifting up toward the leprechaun above her. He was watching her like she was made of gold, his mouth parted to breathe even though she could tell that he was holding his breath while he waited for her to make her next move. 

The two of them had been having various forms of sex for well over 1000 years now, off and on, and oral sex was something that, while she thoroughly enjoyed having it done to her...it wasn't something that she did for others often. Her issue had always been the power and control she had to give up when she'd done it. Here though, with her mouth so close to her sometimes lover's dick she feels like the most powerful thing in the world. The way he was looking at her as she untucked the towel from around his waist and slowly pulled the ends away from his groin was truly addictive. 

"Oh Rota...yesss...FUCK," he hisses as she slowly ran her lips along the side of his hardness and then opened her lips the smallest bit and let just the head of his cock slide into her welcoming mouth. She hadn't been at it for longer then a couple minutes when she felt his thighs start to quiver under her hands. The noises that she was pulling out of him were different then the ones she was used to him making when they were together, softer but so much more intense. She kept her pace fairly slow and steady, though when she found sensitive spots she would linger there for longer then the rest. 

His hands, she noticed, were relentless with their movements. He was grabbing at the blankets, then the towel still sitting on the bed, then they'd just be balled up into tight fists beside him, she even saw him grab at his own hair once or twice...finally, after minutes of desperately trying to find something to cling to, his hands landed gently on her, one in her hair at the back of her neck and the other on her shoulder, not guiding or forcing, just resting there at first. Rota sped her movements on his member just to feel those strong hands tighten their grip on her and to hear the agonized noise that Sweeney made as her slick lips moved along his cock. She could feel the heat building in her stomach and spine and she could feel the wetness gathering between her legs and in her panties. 

His cock was getting even harder in her mouth and she knew what was next, even if she didn't give oral sex very often, she knew he was getting close to his climax and she suddenly had never wanted anything more in her life. She pulled back far enough so she could look up at him as she talked but close enough so that he could feel her words on the tip of his cock, "Cum for me Sweeney, cum in my mouth...give it to me." She wrapped her lips back around the tip of his cock and pumped the rest of it with her hand as fast as she could manage. Sweeney's abdomenal muscles tightened up under her free hand and his back arched as his hand tightened suddenly in her hair to hold her in place while he thrusts up into her mouth groaning out his pleasure the whole time. His eyes were glued to her lips wrapped around the end of his dick, a picture he desperately hoped he'd never forget.

"Rota...fuck...yess, please love... just like that," he panted out as he watched the head of his dick slip in and out of the circle of her soft lips, his essence making her lips shine before she licked out to get it all and swallow it down. She sucked at the tip gently to make sure she had gotten all he had to offer. He flopped back on the bed, looking away from the scene in front of him while he caught his breath. She sat back on her heels and gazed up the bed at the man in front of her. She knew he was exhausted but she also knew that she needed more and was fairly sure that he wanted her orgasm just as bad as she had wanted his. 

Rota was just reaching down to undo her jeans when he sat up just enough to be able to look at her, "I know yer wetter then the fuckin sea right now lassling, I can smell it on ya. If it's a sacrifice yer wantin to give me, why not come let me sip on some of that cream b'tween yer thighs." She felt her cheeks heat up immediately. She knew he had always been up for putting his mouth on her there, he'd never put it quite so bluntly and she was surprised just how turned out his talk had made her. She used his thighs to help her get to her feet and then she slid her pants down to her ankles and then onto the floor with her boots. Her panties were the next to go and she decided at that point she may as well let him get a good look so she pulled her bra and shirt off as well. Once she had it all off her attention shifted back to the man on the bed, slowly stroking himself back to full hardness looking for all the world like he would eat her mind, body, and soul if he could.

He leans back on the bed and motions for her to climb on top of him, "Come here, woman." She starts climbing up him and the bed, still in the lead but allowing him to read her the directions. He reachs out and takes her arms, gently pulling her up up up until she is straddling his grinning face. She would feel embarrassed by the position if not for the fact that he looked happier then a cat who had gotten ALL the cream. She allowed him to lead her movements by his hands holding on tightly to her thighs. He pulled her sex down to his mouth and started giving gentle open mouth kisses to her inner lips before plunging his tongue as deep inside her as it would go, pulling her taste out of her and into his mouth. She whimpered and her thighs shook. She started grinding herself down against his mouth and she could feel it more then hear it as he groaned right into her cunt. She tried to hold back as she rode his face but he could tell and he wasn't happy about it. He lifted her off his face by an inch or two using the hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled his head back to make eye contact with her.

"I know I ain't all I used to be but I ain't that fuckin fragile," he growled up at her, "Take what you need woman." He pulled her back down to his mouth and sucked her clit into his mouth, rolling his tongue back and forth over it softly. She followed his instructions and bared down on his face a bit more, allowing him to take more of her weight into his hands and grinding back and forth against his lips and tongue. Within minutes she was climbing to her peak. She lifted one of her hands off the bed where she had been anchoring some of her weight and dug her fingers into his thick ginger hair, pushing his mouth even more fully against her core and she nearly squealed out her pleasure into the almost empty hotel room. 

"Yess...oh yes Sweeney...oh my god...Sweeney," she panted as she slowed her grinding down but still riding the waves of her climax, she looked down directly into his eyes as she rolled her hips, "oh MY god...SWEENEY..." She hoped that he heard the words how she'd meant them. He was the only god she had any interest in following anymore, even if he wasn't much of one anymore.

She climbed off of his chest and stretched out beside him on the bed. She kissed his wet mouth and tasted herself all over his lips and in his beard. "That was amazing love, just what I needed," he whispered against her lips. He already looked better then when she found him, she didn't know if it was the bath, the care, or the sex but she was glad for whatever part she'd played in it. She could already hear the irishman snoring quietly above her so she allowed herself to doze off with her head on his chest. 

Rota woke up, suddenly, to the sound of the room next to hers' door slamming shut. She looked around the room and found the digital clock on a desk in the corner, it read 8 am. She knew that as long as he wasn't drunk off his ass, Sweeney rose with the sun every morning and he certainly wasn't in bed with her anymore. The clothes she'd taken off of him the night before were gone off the floor and he hadn't left anything behind except a couple gold coins on top of his pillow "to remember him by," he always said on their morning afters. She probably had a small fortune in gold from the hoard at this point stowed away in her hidden places. 

She couldn't sense which way he had went but she was happy about that. It meant that he at least didn't have a deathwish anymore, or at least not at the moment. She stretched back out in the bed and pulled the pillow the leprechaun had slept on closer to her, burying her face in it and inhaling deeply. Whether he was filthy or clean, Mad Sweeney always carried the smell of green hills after the rain with him. After allowing herself to enjoy the familiar aroma for a few more moments she rolled out of bed and began pulling her clothes back on. No need trying to find a wild leprechaun that doesn't want to be found, she thought to herself. She had other things to worry about and other duties to attend to while the war between old gods and new was so quickly coming to a head. 

The valkyrie gathered up the coins Sweeney had left for her and put them in the chest pocket of her leather jacket before giving the room one more look around and walking out the door...hopeful that it wouldn't be years before she saw her friend again.

**Author's Note:**

> Endnote: I don't mind if anyone wants to link this on livejournal or tumblr, etc. I don't really mess with those platforms but I know there are fanfic groups for this fandom up there and I am open to that. I just don't really do it myself.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are so very appreciated.


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